Vampire fangs directly above her face, Cadence twisted her body as her hands came up to grab at Drew’s familiar face, though she was certain whoever this was, it wasn’t her friend. Drew had dated Kash--not Jon. She didn’t have time to ponder whether or not this was a Vampire she was acquainted with trying to hoax her or just one of Holland’s tricks. Since her Glock was across the room, and she had chosen not to bring a Beretta this time, without fishing around for another weapon, she only had her hands to fight with.
And her knees.
She raised them into the Vampire’s gut, hard, and as the woman gasped, she took advantage of the situation and pushed her across the room. The monster careened into the wall, but it only took a moment for the Vampire to launch herself back at her. Cadence’s fingertips grazed the butt of her Glock, but she couldn’t get it in time, so she pulled her knife. It was Van’s blade—she was certain this time--and when the Vampire came screeching her direction, she whipped the weapon around, catching her across the chest, cutting through the white material of her shirt and gashing into her chest.
The screech morphed into a cry of pain, and the Vampire recoiled a step, but she wasn’t done, and she came at Cadence again. This time, the knife connected with her arm, and Cadence kicked at the same time, knocking the creature backward. She snatched up a handful of Cadence’s hair, pulling her down with her by the ponytail, and they both tumbled to the thinly carpeted floor.
The monster wasn’t giving up easily. They rolled across the floor, vying for position as Cadence swung the blade at every chance, and the Vampire’s sharp claws dug into Cadence’s arms and ripped at her cheek.
Cadence rolled them closer to the copy machine, stabbing the Vampire’s hand with the knife so that she screamed and let go of her hair. Then, she grabbed her by the top of her blonde head and banged her face into the copy machine several times. The Vampire sunk her claws into Cadence’s forearm, and her grasp on the knife began to slip, so she tossed it up into the air, twisted her arm so that the claws came lose and then punched the Vampire in the side of the head before grabbing the blade as it came back down and sinking it into the creature’s neck.
Once again, a sharp scream filled the air, and when Cadence looked down at the dented in face beneath her, it wasn’t Drew she saw, but it was someone she knew.
“Laura!” she shouted, though she wasn’t even sure she could trust her eyes at this point. The knife sticking out of the Vampire’s neck had slowed her struggle, and as Cadence pulled it back out and readied herself to plunge it in again, she repositioned her knees so that the woman beneath her couldn’t wiggle free.
“That’s right you stupid bitch!” Laura growled, but her face shifted so that the dents were gone, and she smiled up at Cadence, looking much like her former self, except for paler. And with sharper teeth. “My one regret in this life is that I didn’t kill you or Aaron when I had the chance.”
“Well, that’s over now,” Cadence replied, sweat dripping down her forehead. “You blew your last chance at immortality.”
Laura didn’t respond to the statement, only shook her head and continued with her own train of thought. “You think you can win, but you can’t. You have no idea what forces you’re messing with. Just wait. You’ll die. And when you do, you’ll be all alone.” Her smile morphed into a snarl, and Cadence decided it was time to end this fight once and for all.
She plunged Van’s blade back into Laura’s neck, closer to the right side this time, and began to saw it across toward the gaping hole she’d left on the left. Laura grinned up at her the entire time in some sort of macabre victory celebration Cadence didn’t quit understand. The twisted pleasure she got from sawing off the head of the woman who’d gotten Elliott killed and tried to end her and Aaron was not something she was proud of, but when she finally made it through the last sinew of Laura’s neck, she couldn’t help but feel relieved.
Laura didn’t scream like most Vampires did. Instead, she laughed. It was a maniacal, asylum haunting, deep, throaty laugh that seemed to echo around the empty room for far too long before it dissipated, and Cadence found herself sitting on the ground again, a pile of ash between her knees and a reverberation in her brain.
She realized then that her IAC wasn’t working. Reaching for her gun, she double-checked the aftermarket safety was still off, and hearing no gunfire from outside the door anymore, she stood, intending to go check on the rest of the team.
As she turned around, a form filled the doorway. A muscular Vampire with short hair and a ghoulish smile on his face, and she immediately clicked the safety off and opened fire, tired of these games.
“Cadence! What the hell?” the monster screeched, ducking back around the corner. She knew she’d hit it in the shoulder, but there was something off about the tone the Vampire used when it spoke her name, and immediately she thought of Holland and her dirty games.
She took three quick steps to the door, her Glock still in front of her. The sound of hurried footsteps in the hallway had her running as the creature ducked behind something in the room next door. She followed but stayed outside. “I know you’re in there!”
“Cadence! I’m not sure what the hell is going on right now, but you just shot me—Aaron—your fiancé. Can you please put that gun away? I’m gonna need Martin, and I can’t have you shooting anyone else.”
Puzzled, Cadence looked down the hallway toward the warehouse. Had she really shot the man she loved? It seemed impossible, yet she’d thought Laura was Drew. Hoping her sister could use her telepathy, she sent a signal out into the world. “Cass, can you put a block on for me?”
“No, I can’t,” her sister replied quickly. “Somehow, she’s screwing with what I can do. What’s going on with your IAC?”
“I don’t know. It’s not working now. Did I shoot Aaron?”
Her sister was quiet for a second. “Son of a bitch, Cadence! Put your gun away!”
“How do I know you’re you?”
“When you were in eighth grade you tripped in the hallway at school and on your way down, you accidentally kissed Jon on the mouth, and he thought you were his girlfriend for three weeks. Put the damn gun down and get Martin!”
“Shit,” Cadence muttered, holstering her weapon. Then to Aaron, she said, “Okay. I put the gun away. I’m coming in!”
She opened the door to find him behind a desk, bleeding pretty badly from the shoulder. “Shit,” she said again.
“Yeah, you think,” Aaron replied, pressing his hand to his shirt beneath his leather jacket. “Those footsteps are Martin, so don’t shoot him. Okay?”
There was no reason to try to explain right now. He seemed to be losing a lot of blood, so she looked around for something to stop the bleeding but saw nothing. When Martin arrived, she moved out of the way, and the doctor fell to his knees on the ground next to the Guardian Leader. “He’s going to be okay,” he assured her. “But you sure got close to making this a game changer.”
Cadence had no words. She paced back and forth across the small room for a second, watching Martin do his work. Aaron’s expression changed from a grimace to something closer to normal, and she took a few deep breaths, knowing then he would be okay, no thanks to her.
“Building is clear,” Aaron said, his words choppy. “Most of the other team members are still upstairs.”
“Good.” Without her IAC, she couldn’t check that. She had no idea how Holland was messing everything up, but the monster had definitely done a number on her that night. “I’m going to go get some fresh air.” She wasn’t doing any good standing in there. Wiping Aaron’s blood off of her hands the best she could onto her purple leather pants, she headed for the door.
Once outside, she stopped to take a few deep breaths and looked up at the stars. The moon was low in the sky, and she thought about how that orb had changed everything once before, maybe for the better, but at this point, after having almost killed Aaron, after chasing Drew down a hallway only to kill Laura, she wasn’t sure. She slowly started to walk toward the SUV, thinking a few moments alone inside might calm her down before the rest of the team loaded up, and they could head home. Without her IAC, she couldn’t even check the progress of the rest of the teams.
Nor could she open the door without the keys. “Damn it.”
“Something wrong?”
She turned quickly and let out a sigh, glad to see it was only Alex. How he had snuck up on her, she didn’t know, but her stomach was in knots, probably from the atrocious error she’d recently committed, and she wasn’t quite herself. “No, I just… my IAC is screwed up. How are you?”
He was still a good ten feet away, but he looked tired. His shoulders slumped, and he was fiddling with the cuffs of his sleeves. “Ready to get on the road,” he said with a sigh, and Cadence noted something sounded off about his speech. He was usually so formal. She glanced back up at the top floor of the warehouse and saw shadows moving around. Hadn’t Alex said something about wanting to explore old engines up there? Why wouldn’t he be with the rest of the Roatan Guardians? Like most things that night, this wasn’t making any sense, but then, she couldn’t just pull her Glock on him either, so she took a few steps back and studied him. He seemed to be doing the same.
